Match Report

Sunday 19^th March was Mother’s day so probably a good thing there were no Juniors or Under 23 matches, meaning they could spend the day with their Mums. For the rest of us, Hampshire were the visitors to Chatham Pool and Snooker Club.

The day started well for Kent when the Kent Seniors won the opening match pretty convincingly 22-14. There were a couple of good performances from Andy Redsull and Andy Gee with maximum points and Barbara Taylor got her first senior frames on the board with 3 out of 4. So, the Seniors have started the season with two games unbeaten and look forward to having a good season.   

Before the afternoon matches began there was recognition and celebration for the Kent A team as they won the Inter County National championships a couple of weeks before. Although the Juniors did not have a game they were also applauded for their endeavours at the same competition, as they also came home National Champions. Well done all. 

Kent A

Hampshire proved to be stern competition for the new champions winning the first and third sets 6-5. Going into the final set it was 17-16 to Hampshire but a 5 frame winning burst at the start of the final set all but sealed the victory with Kent going on to win the match 24-20. 

Notable performance from Jasper Simmonds winning 4/4 with some good clearances and an exceptional final frame clearance from Charlie Minta, delivered the winning frame.   

Kent B 

Kent B were determined to get back to winning ways following, in their words, a poor performance at the national finals. Farron Rowe gathered the team at the start of the match to get the team in the right mindset and this seemed to work well as they won the first set 7-4 and the second set 8-3. Farron must have motivated himself pretty well as he delivered all 4 of his frames as did Charley McDowell, so that’s 8/8 for the man called up from the C team for the last two games. Well done Charley, great start to the season.   

31-13 final score. 

Kent C 

A couple of changes at the start of the game meant a shuffle to the pack with senior Lee Crowhurst stepping in to help. The team dominated the first 3 sections with 8-3, 8-3 and 9-2 wins which eventually turned into a 29-15 win. 

Three players won all four of their frames, Jamie Fenech (said in a Scottish accent), Louie Wilson and Phil Horley – well done lads – a good emphatic win following your draw last time out. Let’s hope you can dominate again like previous seasons. 

Ladies 

Well the ladies suffered their first loss for many a year yesterday losing 24-20 to a strong Hampshire team. However more importantly for the Kent Ladies, things took an unexpected turn during the last set when Barbara Taylor became unwell and needed assistance before being taken to hospital.  I have spoken to Barbara this morning and she thanks everyone for their kind words and well wishes. 

Barbara wants to let people know she had IV fluids overnight and is having some scans today and hopes after that to be discharged home later today. 

Barbara wanted to thank in particular Aimee Firkins, from Hampshire ladies team, for holding her hand and reassuring Barbara throughout the time waiting for the ambulance yesterday, Karen Darby for communicating with the ambulance service and updating them on her condition and me for responding to the call when she was poorly in the room. 

As a final note congratulations to the following players having earned their next county medal:

600 frames – Wille Anderson
100 frames – Jo Herrington
100 frames – Ash Hind

Moving on our next match is at home to London on 16^th April. Keep practising and see you all there.

Regards, Wilbo  

Final Scores

u23s	no match
Seniors	22-14 WIN
Juniors	no match
Ladies	20-24 LOSS
A	24:20 WIN
B	31:13 WIN
C	29:15 WIN

Now that the dust has started to settle after an eventful weekend at Pontins Pakefield, we thought it was time to reflect on the achievements across the Kent squad before we move onto our second county match of the season.

England Team Trials

Our county was well represented across the categories, but firstly massive congratulations go to Jan Spinner who qualified for the England Ladies Team.

It is great achievement just to finish at the top end of the region to qualify for a trial in the first place. Then being pitted against the top 64 players in the country to battle it out for 8 spaces in the squad is an even tougher challenge.

So congratulations to all of our other triallists, they weren’t successful this timebut but undoubtedly will be back:

Seniors: Lee Crowhurst, Martin Prime
Under 23s: Callum Brown, Harry Compton, Jake Lloyd, Frank Moss
Ladies: Jo Herrington, Vanessa Ledger
Juniors: Callum Britt, Chase East, Erin Gannon, James Goldsmith, Josh Wheeler (trials held in January)

Inter County Finals

Firstly we must congratulate again our National Championship winning teams – Mens A and Juniors.

Mens A

Kent Mens A went one better than last year by beating Bristol A 23-18 in the final, the first ever win for a Kent team in this category. Their fate looked in the balance in the semi-final against last year’s champions Leicestershire A with both of the last two frames in play at a score of 22-20. Kent managed to win the one frame they needed to secure a spot in the final.

Our boys were never behind in the final winning the first two sets 7-4 and 8-3. With Kent’s lead at 21-12, Bristol started to get some momentum winning the first 5 frames of the final set to make the score 21-17, but Mitch Standen put us on the hill and in his first outing as captain at a National Finals, Adam Bassoo took the winning frame. This picture says it all.

Juniors

In some ways a similar story for the Juniors, runners up in 2022 and champions in 2023. The first win in this category since 2001.

The team made light work of their group matches winning 23-12 and 27-9 over Northamptonshire and West Yorkshire respectively. they took this dominance with them into the semi final beating Leicestershire 19-9. Taking the National crown with a 19-11 win over Essex in the final with Finley O’Shaughnessy getting us over the line.

We weren’t able to emulate this success in the other categories but they will all be back for another campaign.

Under 23s

A first round loss to West Midlands B put our team into the Cup event, our boys re-doubled their efforts beating London 11-3. But then faced West Midlands A and lost out 5-11 in the quarter final. Most of this team all still have time leave in this age category with only Charley Macdowall having aged out, so we’re sure they will come back stronger next year

Mens B

Expectations were undoubtedly high coming into the event as reigning champions. Unfortunately it was to be as a first round loss to Leicester put the B team into the Cup. A win against Worcestershire saw them progress to the quarter finals but our team were unable to make it any further losing 19-23 to Essex.

All good experience for the team and plenty to build on.

Ladies

The ladies team have had so much success over the years having won on 8 previous occasions. We made a good start beating Essex 23-12 in the first round and secured a semi final spot by beating Region 7 neighbours Hampshire 23-18. This was as far as the ladies were able to progress losing out to the ultimate winners Cheshire 18-23.

The current season continues…

Many thanks to all the players and supporters who were with us along the way at Pakefield. Our campaign to get to the finals again next year is already underway with our second match of the season on Mother’s Day (no need to thank us for the reminder) 19th March were we host Hampshire.